


The Dragon's Choice

by Xobit



Category: Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-31
Updated: 2012-07-31
Packaged: 2017-11-11 03:08:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/473839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xobit/pseuds/Xobit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A young dragon is claimed...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dragon's Choice

Dragon territory was an arbitrary thing, when hunting was good they tended to be small and consist of single dragons or breeding pairs. Small was relative of course, any healthy single dragon, while only needing one big meal a week, still had a territory of about twenty to forty square kilometers depending on the dragon’s size. A pair needed at least twice that and if they were breeding triple or quadruple that, depending on how many hatchlings they had.

When times were hard and there was drought or other natural reasons for prey animals to be scares dragons banded together in big flocks and shared their territories and food. Often this would mean one strong dragon fighting singles and pairs, subduing them, killing immature dragons and hatchlings until there was a solid flock left he could rule over. 

Cybertron was only just leaving such a cycle of hardship behind, it had lasted for a long time and the surviving dragons were mostly old ones for very few hatchlings had been hatched and survived in the vorn of starvation.

Ultra Magnus was the undisputed, fair leader of the forest dragons’ flock. He had gone against the dragon who had collected the flock in the beginning of the hard time, Nova Prime, who had wanted to destroy all eggs laid in the hard time and won. The prize had been high, killing one’s own nest partner was not an easy thing. But the big blue and white dragon had believed it better to at least give the hatchlings a chance, hoping that some would survive and thrive. 

Some had. 

Sentinel Prime and Optimus Prime both fallen after the late Nova Prime and Ultra Magnus, the very reason for the blue and white dragon to challenge his own nesting partner. 

Young Ironhide, the even younger Bumblebee and the barely over hatchlinghood rare twin dragons Jetfire and Jetstorm. 

Six young dragons had survived though fifty vorn of drought and starvation. The original flock of eighty adult dragons had dwindled to twenty three. Even with the younglings they had a long way to go to regain their former numbers. 

Though the bad times seemed to be over, each new vorn bringing more prey, flourishing crystals and rain, the flock would stay together for some time to come. 

And there was also conflict. 

Other flocks had survived, some better than the forest flock. One flock in particular was troubling and seemed to have managed better than many others for a long time. The mountain dragons of the massive that bordered the great forests. They had always been aggressive and had in the past been dangerous for more than one reason. 

The aggressive mountain dragons were huge for the most part, heavily armored and able to breathe fire. While they were not really interested in the forest for hunting, they were too big to fly between the crystals, they jealously guarded what they perceived to be the boarders of the massive. That was a good bit of the territory of the forest flock. 

And unmated mountain dragons would chose whichever mate they happened to desire. It seemed to forest dragons that they had no need for permanent mates. Unlike most forest dragons who might choose to live with a nest partner to breed with for a time but ultimately would chose a bond mate to be with for the rest of their long life.

But no one had seen a mountain dragon in many a vorn…

* * *

“Bumblebee! Be quiet.” Optimus snorted as soundlessly as he could at Sentinel’s useless order and crept further away from his friends. He’d become more and more restless as the season turned towards fall, they all granted on his nerves and he found it better to not be near them and have to explain why he’d lashed out, verbally or physically. 

Besides… he loved the silence of this part of the great forest between the mountains and the plains. Here, at the foothold of the massive were hills made the forest shoot its back, were brooks bubbled between the hills in natural scars they had laboriously carved out over the eons. 

It was soothing here, all cool silence and laughing water. He could have flown though the labyrinth of crooked agelessly old crystals but preferred to walk his restlessness off. Walking up the hills, up towards the cool mountains. 

He wondered about them, about the stories of the great mountain dragons that his Carrier told. Great big brutes with very little intelligence. Were they really that bad? Where there any left?

Could he maybe fly off towards the peaks and discover what lay beyond? 

“It is foolish!” the screech made several mecha birds take wing and Optimus nearly did too. Alarm course though him, an unknown dragon on their territory? That would have to be a mountain dragon!

He wavered, wings half unfurled, between the need to flee that had been ingrained in the youngling dragon and the knowledge of the young adult dragon that his flock needed to know about intruders… or worse; invaders. In the end he stayed, creeping forward, pressed to the ground, wings closely furled. 

“Do not question the leader.” the growl was heavy and slow, the way the elders always spoke when they played out the old stories of battles fought between forest dragons and mountain dragons. 

“You do not possess the wits to know what is foolish or not, Lugnut! And don’t you dare speak to me in that tone either!” Optimus finally came to a break in the undergrowth crystals where he could see the two speakers. But there were more than two there! A big heavily plated dragon that was an exact match to a mountain dragon, a slender big winged dragon yelling at him and more of the same slender dragons off to one side. A three headed dragon watched dispassionately, well one head at least, the other was snarling and the third was giggling. 

There were more dragons, a small flock of them, and apart from the mountain dragon he had no idea what they were. The argument continued, occasionally one of the other present would say something and then continue watching curiously as the argument blossomed to new heights. 

A roar tore the argument apart and Optimus looked up, just as every dragon in the clearing did. Up to a sight that made him loose his breath in wonder. The landing dragon was huge, not as big as the mountain dragon but massive and yet graceful. 

His belly was darkly red, like one of the rubies that they occasionally found in the rivers that came from the mountains but with an almost metal like sheen. His legs and massive claws were black, his horns and some of the very thick armor on him also black, a dark light swallowing metallic black. The rest of him was silver… a fantastic color. Not the overly bright silver that Optimus himself sported in some places but a dull, almost cloudy silver. 

Something inside Optimus clenched in want, the landing dragon excluding a presence he had never experienced before. Not even his own Carrier had that kind of power over his own flock!

“Silence, Starscream, Lugnut!” and the voice! He shook, pressing to the ground while he watched the proceedings with wide blue optics.

“Foolish or not, we know that they are few… that they have fared far better though the lean vorns in terms of breeding than we have. Lugnut and Stika are the only pair that survived! We need what they have, since none of us seem eager to pair off permanently.” deep red optics swept the assembled dragons and they all suddenly got busy preening. 

“It will require some planning. And I will have the wings of anyone who harm any of them permanently! I will do worse to those that try to take a mated one.” Optimus did not know what he was hearing. Far too confused and shaken by his own reaction to the strange metallic dragon. 

“Take wing, back to the caverns!” they did as the metallic stranger ordered, some with more grace than others, and Optimus watched them fly away before he turned to join his own. Should he say anything? It had sounded like they planned an attack… 

But not like they planned to take territory?

Maybe he had better stay quiet until he could figure out what they had been planning. 

Yes…

* * *

As it turned out Optimus had little time to worry over whether or not he should tell anything. His flock elders already knew that strange dragons where encroaching. As occupied as he was with thoughts of the strange dragon that had been the leader of the encroaching flock he didn't consider that he might know more than his elders.

He'd already almost forgotten what the dragons had talked about, after all a good deal of it had been aimless augmenting and goading. What he remembered was the strange forms of the dragons and the voice of the leader. 

That voice was a thing to dream of! His carrier had a deep voice but nothing like the velvety, honey smooth absolutely gorgeous voice of the stranger. What was he? He attempted to bug Kup for answers but all he got out of him was that all elements had dragons. 

Which he knew of course. Fire drakes and earth drakes were the originators of mountain dragons. Water drakes and air drakes were the originators of forest dragons... he presumed that Kup's cryptic answer either meant that he didn't know or that the drakes of the five elements could have spawned other dragon kin than mountain and forest dragons. 

The plain dragons were really just skinny forest dragons so... 

Or were they? What if they were something else again? Had he lived all his life knowing of a third drake descendant kin and not understanding it? 

Pondering this, the metallic stranger and the way his chassis behaved whenever he thought of the latter kept Optimus rather busy for the next few orn. He knew some of what was up with his chassis at least, he and Sentinel were reaching adulthood and with that came maturity. 

He just didn't know why this stranger had made such an impression on him. Or why he found the members of his flock so annoying and... boring in comparison. 

Life didn't stay boring though. 

Nine orn after overhearing the strange flock's planning he found out what they had been talking about. It was very early in the light cycle, most flock dragons still curled about their nest partner, bond mate or curled up on their own in sleep. Only the guard was up and had it been anyone but Kup... 

"ATTACK! ATTAC~argh!" It was not much warning but it was warning. Every one managed to rouse before the strangers came for them and soon the camp was a battlefield. It was impossible to see what was going on. Optimus tried to make sure that the other younglings were safe, fleeing into the thickest part of the forest as they had been taught, he didn't know where Sentinel was!

"Younglings!" the hiss was not precisely one of surprise, but the slim bright red dragon looked surprised. A much bigger blue dragon pushed him aside and made a grab for Optimus that he only barely avoided. 

"He said there would be some, this one looks almost adult." Optimus snarled, the rude blue one might be bigger but he could still take him on! 

“And his scent is that of an adult!” The smaller red dragon sounded almost like he was laughing when he threw himself against the blue one in a head on attack. 

And that was when he completely lost track of what was going on. Everything became hissing and roaring, claws slashing and jaws snapping. He'd never been in a fight before, only trained with Kup and hunted. But few prey creatures fought back. 

These dragons fought back and they clearly knew more about fighting than he did. Still he managed to hold his ground quite well, being smaller and more agile, and more used to being on the ground, than most of them seemed to be.

He wasn't sure when his opponent shifted, didn't notice anything other than a difference in size until he was pinned for a moment and looked up into smoldering deep red optics. 

A jolt of heat seemed to pass between them, red optics widening before Optimus managed to twist free. Lines of fire ran over his belly plating where the larger dragon's shape claws scored a shallow set of hits.

Keeping his wings in tight he rolled onto all fours again and whipped around to face his new opponent. Surprisingly the dragon hadn't jumped on him, he seemed to be hesitating, mouth open and breathing coming in strange hard bursts, optics narrowing dangerously.

He was much larger than Optimus, massive and heavy, scales glinting metallically. At a distance he hadn't seemed this big but now... he had to look up at him! Further than he had to when he was standing in front of his Carrier. 

"I have scented you before." the voice was just as perfect as before but Optimus refused to let it affect him, tired to refuse it at least. 

"You have been trespassing in our forest!" that should be clear enough, the other had probably scented all of them before, at least vicariously. Daring a quick glance around he realized that he would get no help from the rest of the flock, everyone was battling someone and they were not readily visible among the crystal trunks. 

"You’re forest? You don't own the land, little dragon, no one does. You may hold hunting rights, but that is all." The other stepped towards him, silver wings unfurling just enough to show off the red on their underside... 

"It has been our forest for more vorn than any living member of the flock remembers!" Optimus growled as menacingly as he could, his own wings flaring out in an unconscious attempt to seem bigger. 

"I doubt that, the dragon laws are not that old." but for a moment the metallic dragon was distracted and Optimus attacked. 

Later on, when he looked back on it, he understood that it had been a rash and foolish thing to do. At the time he had been too intimidated, angry and confused to make any other choice. Besides the stranger was nominally the aggressor. 

He was promptly smacked away, skidding across the forest floor for a moment until he managed to dig his claws in. If he had been thinking clearly he would have known that the hit hadn't been nearly as serious as it could have been, no claws had been used after all.

Thinking clearly might also have allowed him to notice that while the bigger dragon walked after him, that was all he did. Walk. Not run, not attack... no attempt to use his advantages. And he had plenty. But all he saw was that he was moving in and so he sprang at him again, and was again rebuffed. 

The fourth time it happened he limbed a little when he got up, right shoulder bruised and a little dented. His opponent was 'grinning' at him, the sharp dental plates bared in what, to him, looked like a sneer. 

He went directly for the throat this time and found himself promptly on his back, painfully pressed into the forest floor, a heavy clawed paw on his chest and huge jaws snapping right in front of his muzzle tip. 

"Get off me!" he scratched futilely at the leg holding him down, and was quite surprised when the larger dragon backed off. Not surprised enough not to whack him with his tail though, attempting to drive him further away. 

He shouldn't have done that. His tail was simply not strong enough to cause that much damage to the metallic dragon and he exposed his back to him. And promptly got pinned again, this time with the whole, hot and heavy, frame of the other on top of him. His front legs collapsed and he was helplessly left with attempting to push up, tail lashing out aimlessly. 

"Get off!" His only answer was a purr and a hot glossa swiping over his muzzle. He growled and shifted his hindquarters only to freeze and whimper uncertainly. "G-get off! Now!" having an attacker lying on him was not supposed to make him... feel like this! 

Hot... wanting, just like the first time he had seen this dragon. 

"I don't think so." the purr was amused this time and the weight on his back suddenly got a nudge upwards. "You shouldn't have fought, your elders should certainly know better. Have taught you better..." 

Optimus growled again, attempting to twist out of the other's hold. All he managed to do was rub his tail and hindquarters against the larger dragon, and said dragon didn't particularly seem to be annoyed by this. 

“There’s a good dragon!” The lusty heavy growl, despite the mocking words, prompted a whine from him and his treacherous chassis released a trickle of hot liquid from his hidden valve. It was immediately clear that his captor’s intentions had shifted at the scent of readiness. Optimus was pushed over onto his back, and tried to kick the other in his face with little success, his left wing locked to the ground for a moment as a heavy front claw was dragged over it and then slipped around to lift his back from the hard ground again. 

Optimus screeched angrily and kicked out again when a hot, wet something dragged over his hidden valve opening and up to his spike slit. The kick turned into something more like an involuntary spasm when the ‘something’ slipped inside the slit and teased his already charged spike. Just like the rest of his chassis his spike reacted readily and slid out to get more direct attention. 

An attempt to beat at the larger dragon with his wings only got the other to tangle their wings up on purpose. Nothing to lose, they were already on the ground and it was effective enough to keep him from flapping his wings in any capacity, be it fight or flight. 

“Get off!” A brief glance told him that the hot and wet something was the other dragon’s long glossa. Then something hot and very hard pressed against the moist hidden opening to his valve and he tossed his head back against the ground, roaring in a mix of anger, fear and need. His captor simply growled eagerly, spike, it had to be, pressed against his valve with the claw not supporting him. 

“Why?” The tone was gravelly with lust and absent, he doubted that the metallic dragon would hear him if he had managed to get his vocalizer to work again. It was impossible though as the large glossa literally wrapped around his spike and dragged up its length. Growling and pushing at the large head earned him nothing but a deep warning rumble. 

All of a sudden he was let go, he immediately twisted violently to get onto all four again. But as soon as he had managed that he was near flattened. The heavier older dragon rumbling with satisfaction as blunt pressure was applied to his valve entrance. 

His roar of pained pleasure as the other dragon’s massive spike entered him was fairly drowned out by a similar roar from his conqueror. Much as he would have liked to fight the claim there was little he could do. They had fought and he had been defeated, all requirements had been fulfilled and as long as his heat lasted he would have to go to this dragon. 

At least the claim would fade with the heat. 

The coupling was short, yet blissful and Optimus would have curled up right there to recharge if he had been allowed to. His new nest partner had other plans though, snapping at him and growling menacingly until he sprang into the air. 

His metallic conqueror sprang into the air after him and drow him towards the distant mountains, refusing him rest until he was flying almost in recharge. It was with strut deep exhaustion he was finally allowed to set down on bare rock and got pushed into a large cave mouth.

* * *

“I don’t want it!” Optimus snarled at his nest partner, furious with him still. Megatron, as he had been told his name was, seldom interacted with him when it had nothing to do with mounting him or bringing him food. He hadn’t allowed him to leave the nest cave when his heat ended. And had nearly taken off the head of the air drake called Starscream when he found out that he had talked with him.

Of course at that time no one but Megatron knew that he had made Optimus egg heavy. Or Starscream hadn’t cared, he seemed to enjoy egging the metal drake on. It had taken a lot for Optimus to accept the existence of pure elemental dragons. The drakes of the old stories… but they were here… two of them at least, air and metal. 

The fifth element, the metal drakes. 

“You will eat!” The impatient roar made Optimus step back, spikes along his back standing stiffly up and his wings half unfurled in defensive position. 

“I will not! You can’t keep me in here forever, you brute!” Not that he could call him that with a clear conscience. Even when mounting him there had been little brutality, if any at all… it did not really matter that he hadn’t wanted it to happen because it had to happen. Mating urges where terribly strong as he had found and Megatron had not taken him since the heat wore off and he made it clear that the metal drake was not welcome to do so. 

“You will eat! You must, for the sake of the clutch you carry,” and with that Optimus’ little rebellion deflated as it always did. This was not how he had imagined his first clutch to be conceived and laid. And he had no idea how he would leave the eggs or the hatchlings behind when they were laid, Megatron had made it clear that he wouldn’t let him take them peacefully off to his flock. 

If he had wanted that he wouldn’t have stopped him from leaving after his heat. 

“Fine…” he moved forward gingerly and snagged the small scrapgoatling by a leg, pulling it away from the metal drake to eat it in peace. He had his mouth full and his muzzle covered in dark processed energon when he realized that the other hadn’t gone away as he usually did. He’d moved closer. 

Growling at him he moved his meal again and crouched over it protectively as he continued eating. Megatron followed, red optics intend and glowing oddly. 

“You can’t avoid me forever,” there was a displeased note in the rumbling tone. “I won’t let you keep playing this game, my mate.” Optimus’ head shot up and he looked at the other, jaws hanging open in surprise. 

“Are you mad?” he gasped, torn between surprise, shock and anger at the audacity of the other dragon. Claiming him as mate? He had won the right of his first heat and they had shared nest as was the tradition when one had sired a clutch. But at no time had Optimus consented to a full mating! 

Red optics narrowed to slits. “Some of my flock might say I am, but no…” 

“Then why on Cybertron would you think I have accepted you as my nest mate?” That answer had only made him further confused, hunger and prey almost forgotten. 

“We have shared nest of the better part of two and a half groon. Your belly is swollen with my eggs. Why should I doubt that I have proven my worth as mate when I can feed you well, house you very well, and have sired a clutch on you in your very first heat. Where have I shown any undesirable traits that would make you reject me as mate?” infuriatingly arrogant, though he was speaking the truth. Apart from kidnapping him there really was nothing to say to his abilities as a nest mate instead of a temporary nest partner. 

And kidnapping was… somewhat normal. It wouldn’t even have been kidnapping if they had not been in a flock. If he had been on his own, as was the norm outside of hard times, Megatron would have simply herded him off to his own territory or claimed both him and his territory. 

Megatron was a magnificent dragon in all aspects. Big, strong and handsome with his metallic colors, he couldn’t breathe fire but rather breathed heat… he could melt stone with his breath. He was a good hunter who rarely came home without prey and he always made sure that Optimus ate his fill, even when he had to be bullied to do so. Their nest was a comfortable melted out hollow filled with fine sand. The cave had another far bigger hollow in which to take nice sand baths and also had a smaller cave attached that was somehow hated, its sands soft and warm. A perfect hatching nest…

But…

“I don’t even know you!” which would of course also have been the case of he had been caught alone but somehow it seemed… offensive. He had never lived in the wild! He was used to knowing ‘everyone’, to have a choice in whom he would mate with. Whose clutch he would carry. 

And all that had just been ripped away. 

“I don’t even _like_ you…” the very idea was stunning. 

“You truly are flock bred.” the bigger dragon chuckled, not cruelly though, and shook his massive head. “If I have to I will wait till your next heat and mate you then. One way or another I will have you as mate when this clutch has been laid,” Optimus stiffened, growling uncertainly.

“You can’t force me to take mech form!” it was all he could come up with in defense. 

“No, but force won’t be needed,” with that the metal drake got up and stalked out. He was clearly not pleased but also clearly thought he had won… The last scared Optimus quite a bit.

* * *

The eggs arrived a little over one groon later. Soft shelled and looking so frail that Optimus refused anyone to touch them. Even Megatron who backed out of the hatching cave right quick when faced with a furious if exhausted Optimus. No one would risk damage to newly laid eggs, least of all the sire of them. 

He carefully buried each of them in sand so that only the very top part still showed above the sand. When the last one was laid and buried he fell into recharge right there on the hot sand, waking much later to nervously check on them. At that point they had already hardened and taken color. 

Several of them shone with the same metallic sheen as their sire. Grumbling a bit to himself about that Optimus made his way slowly from the cave too hungry to stay any longer and uncomfortably warm from recharging on the heated sand. 

No one stopped him from taking wing this time and he relished in the cool wind and in hunting. It was while eating his kill that he realized that he was allowed this freedom because Megatron knew he would return to their clutch. 

There was no fear that he would flee and let hatchlings be hatchlings. 

Sure enough, when he returned Megatron was lounging on the ledge above the cave mouth. Sitting down on the cool rock Optimus looked up at him, frowning a little at the newly preened look of his scales. Was he showing off? 

“Whatever you are planning won’t work. I am not going to mate with you again, and _certainly_ not in mech form!” Self-conscious he began preening his own scales, aware that he was still splattered with energon from his hunt and suddenly feeling uncomfortable about it. 

“Do you really think you are the only dragon who has been unwilling to bend to the wishes of his conqueror?” the lazy question had him shoot the other mech a sharp glare, before he started cleaning off his claws. 

“I never said I was.” 

“You act like you are, every mating pair fight and the winner decides whether it becomes more than a few vorn of partnering together. I have decided I want more than a few vorn and one clutch, you have nothing to object with…” Megatron was evidently following his preening with great interest. 

“I don’t know you!” 

“That is of little consequence and something that time will fix easily enough,” the metal drake yawned and tilted his head. “You have energon on your neck, may I help you preen?” 

“Go hump a rock!” Optimus snarled and rose, stalking angrily into the cave. 

A few joor later he wished he had taken the help as his neck scales itched like crazy despite his attempt to clean them by rubbing his neck against the cave walls.

* * *

“It will be several groon before they hatch,” the statement earned Megatron a silent snarl, it wasn’t something he didn’t already know. 

“You will be in heat again before that happens.” 

“I won’t be fertile!” Optimus snapped, annoyed at the matter-of-fact way the bigger dragon spoke. 

“That matters little. You will be able to transform.” Very true and not something he wanted to be reminded of. He would need to mate and Megatron could subdue him again easily enough, unfortunately. How the other would force him to transform was more of a question but Optimus had little doubt that he could. 

“Frag off, Megatron! I am not spark mating you.” Growling he got up and left his clutch of eggs in their sire’s care. At least Megatron would be a good sire, he was very aware of his duties… if only he would drop his claim, they could have a pleasant partnership until the hatchlings were ready to strike out on their own. 

At least the other dragon had begun spending time with him. He was a lot less annoying now that he actually spoke with him about other things than food and mating. Of course he always ended up bringing up mating… 

As well as making his ‘I don’t know you’ claim redundant. 

Frag! It was a little hard to change that part, but he still didn’t want to spark bond the handsome pit demon… 

“You are cute when you pace.” Looking up he saw Starcream perching on a tall rock formation, head cooked to look curiously at him.

“Weren’t you supposed to stay away from me?” He sat down, eager to talk to someone, anyone, not Megatron.

“I am not near you, just talking to you. Why are you not with your clutch?” the air drake had him there, not that he actually minded the other talking to him. 

“Your neck on the line,” he reminded him before shrugging and settling his wings better. “Megatron is with the clutch right now, I needed… some space.” 

“I could see that, just wondering why… is our temporary flock leader not to your liking perhaps?” Giving the air drake a sharp look Optimus started to preen a wing claw, thinking hard for a moment. It wasn’t hard to see that Starscream and Megatron had their issues, it was also not hard to see the veiled intentions in Starscream when he approached. Hadn’t been the first time, wasn’t this time either… 

Was he more interested in the air drake than he was in the metal drake? 

“There are certain issues… but I find no faults in him.” ‘I don’t accept him, but he is close to what I want’. 

“Ahh… well, I am sad to hear that. We all have our preferences though.” 

“I guess we do.” Megatron was close to what he wanted. An unwelcome thought, he’d never expected to be the one clutching all the time… since he was bigger than most aside from his sire he had expected to be a sire. But he liked having a clutch, would like to have more. 

But did he want Megatron’s clutches? 

The dragon hadn’t been evil nor had he imposed after Optimus made it clear he didn’t want his attentions. But he was giving him an ultimatum, and not a choice, about his future… 

“Maybe I could persuade you… differently?” Optimus startled, flared his wings and backed up glaring at the suddenly very up close and personal air drake.

“I don’t think so, Starscream,” he did _not_ want the other dragon! And he did not want him to be this close, touching him. “Get back!” hissing he raised his wings and neck ridge spikes.

“You will be in heat again soon…” Starscream smirked tellingly, but retreated. Leaving Optimus to ponder his future in uneasy peace. 

It was not the last time the air drake approached, though he kept well away if Megatron was near. In the end Optimus just kept inside the cave, afraid that he might not notice the onset of heat and so leave himself open to more than words from the other.

* * *

“Here,” the heavy thud was not that of a prey hitting the cave floor and despite his wish to still seem uninterested Optimus could not help but turn his head to look. He flickered his optics and turned fully, even walked a few steps towards the thing. It was smooth and shiny, a deep blue in color reminiscent of his own blue scales. 

“Er… thank you?” not that he knew what he was supposed to do with it. “It’s pretty… um, very blue?” the heavy sigh from the larger dragon told him that the gift hadn’t had the desired effect on him. Well, too bad for Megatron!

“What?” Snapping, more defectively than acidly, sadly, he looked up at the other. 

“Since I must,” Megatron sat down and tilted his head. “This is but a small token from my hoard, as this is not my preferred nesting place. This token should tell you that I have a sizable collection that I am willing to share with you should you choose me as nest mate.” Optimus stared at him, then at the stone and~ oh!

“But forest dragons don’t have hoards! Though…” reaching out to pick up the sizable stone, gem, he sniffed it cautiously. “it _is_ pretty.” _very_ pretty. 

“I am aware of that, no mixed breed dragons do. Or at least it is very rare.” the dry statement made him put the gem down, maybe a little more harshly than necessary, Megatron certainly didn’t seem to like it.

“Well then, why did you bring it?” Snapping, again, wonderful. 

“Because you have rejected, or only grudgingly accepted, any other courting attempt I have made.” The reminded didn’t really help his mood… 

But the stone was insanely pretty and sort of… enchanting? 

“W-why would a stone make me feel any different about it all?” pretty or not, enchanting or not… it was just a stone. A really big pretty stone.

“The stone in unimportant, my hoard is similarly unimportant… rather at least.” he paused and looked expectant. 

“I still don’t understand…?” the bigger dragon deflated a little. 

“My _preferred_ nesting place. My home, my cavern… a home for us. For our hatchlings,” tense, growled words. Few simple words… and suddenly Optimus got it. He admitted to feeling rather dumb that he had not gotten it before but the stone had been distracting. 

“For… us?” Confusion, again, but also a warm… strange feeling that had very little to do with pretty rocks and heat cycles. 

“Who wants to have a home just for themselves, Optimus?” Oh well, Megatron did have a point there. And when they mated… spark mated Megatron would have had to share… that… 

Oh…

* * *

“They are all safe and dug in.” Optimus nodded, back to his, well, his suitor. His wings were unfurled to hide him from view, he felt very scared and a little too hot for comfort. This had been a big decision to make and he feared that it might be the wrong one. For him at least… 

“You shouldn’t hide your heat.” The rumble came from far closer now. Oddly pleased sounding in the midst of the light reprimand. 

“It’s not started yet,” he shook his head and ducked a little more. 

“It has, I am better at noticing than you are… yet at least,” true… but he wasn’t sure he was ready for it yet. In all his life he had only spent a few orn in this form, giving it to someone else so soon seemed… 

“I don’t want it to be here now! Not yet,” he grasped for the words to explain and ended with an exclamation of fear. 

“Fear is not needed, I won’t hurt you… I won’t lie and say it will be without pain but nothing more than there has to be.” A touch to his wing had him up, snarling warningly at the other even as his optics widened at the sight that met them. Megatron had either been very confident or known already…. 

Handsome dragon made for handsome mech. 

“You are not going to make it easy, are you?” The challenging tone and pose tore him out of his contemplation of the metal drake’s primary form. His optics returned to the handsome faceplates and the smirk on the thin dermas… the smoldering red optics. 

A long moment of staring and then he snarled and sprang at challenging dragon. 

What he had decided mattered little right now. Heat called and with that the need to win or be defeated, that the outcome was guessable also had little impact on instincts. He fought fang and claw, wing against wing with the intent to win! 

It certainly wasn’t the soft sand of the nest he ended up pinned to when Megatron unceremoniously took his valve the first time that battle, with a harsh thrust and a harsher roar of victory. Nor was it the nest sands the second and third time either. 

Optimus was fighting for his freedom, even if he didn’t really want it anymore. It was hard to want something that would prevent bliss like he was in right this moment from happening whenever the need, or lust, for it struck. 

And this dragon was a very good match for anyone. Strong, big, with a beautiful nesting cave, fertile and aggressive. 

Gentle when it counted. 

“Are you going to make me fight for this too?” Sharp claws teased down over his chest plates, making him arch off the soft sand, finally, to get a more substantial touch. “Well?” 

“N-no…” The word was barely audible, croaked out even as his chest plates obediently opened to Megatron’s suggestive caresses. He was conquered, even though he hadn’t started out wanting to be so….

* * *

“What?” 

“Hatching! They are hatching!” Optimus pulled on his mouthful of grey and red wing again, before turning tail to go look at his first clutch again. The first eggs had begun to rock themselves free of the sand they were more or less buried in.

“It will be joors yet,” there was a pause as the metal drake yawned, “before they hatch.” Optimus just shook his head and craned his neck around to be able to nuzzle horns on the bigger dragon’s chin. 

“I don’t care, it is my first clutch so you can watch with me or sleep on the entrance ledge for the next half groon.” Megatron snorted and he nipped him on the soft underside of his long jaw. “Just because you are older than dirt, my nest mate…” the threat was a soft one but it was there and Megatron obediently lay down to wait with him.

As a good nest mate should. 

Megatron was a _very_ good nest mate.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a collaboration piece with megop_murr_miay (LJ)/Murr-Miay (DA) 
> 
> Here is the awesome art [Megatron the Dragon](http://murr-miay.deviantart.com/art/Megatron-as-dragon-272193222) [Optimus the Dragon](http://murr-miay.deviantart.com/art/Dragon-Optimus-276604173) [Dragons making love](http://s008.radikal.ru/i305/1112/65/5326d1eac05e.jpg)
> 
> Beta  
> none


End file.
